The Street Profits made a surprise impact during the Two Out of Three Falls Match between WWE Tag Team Champions DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) and Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) at the Royal Rumble.
The match took a shocking turn when a masked man appeared on the apron, creating a distraction. Moments later, Angelo Dawkins struck Shelley with a crutch, allowing DIY to capitalize and hit their finisher on Shelley to secure the victory. However, the celebration was short-lived, as the Street Profits launched a post-match attack on DIY. This retaliation followed DIY’s previous assault on the Profits, which Michael Cole explained was motivated by their desire to keep the tag team titles out of the challengers’ hands.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed that Dawkins recently underwent minor knee surgery for a suspected torn meniscus, which is why he had the crutch during the match.
“So Angelo Dawkins had minor knee surgery, torn meniscus, I believe, just in the last couple of weeks. So that’s why you had the crutch. And I don’t know that that was ever explained. Was that explained?” Meltzer asked.
Bryan Alvarez responded, “I don’t think so.”
Meltzer added, “I don’t remember it in commentary at all. Does anyone know why they like it? The guy’s got a crutch, but that is the reason. And, and the, you know, you know, actually, in the post-show, Big E brought it up, you know, just out of nowhere, just like, oh yeah, he just had knee surgery. So, you know, I think Dawkins had told him, like, earlier that afternoon. So it didn’t even seem like it was something that, like he was supposed to say.”
